Asian American and Pacific Islander food is extremely popular at Berkeley High School. The Jacket asked BHS students and staff to talk about their favorite dishes that connect to their AAPI heritage.
Senior Mia Valenzuela chose to discuss kimchi fried rice and soup dumplings. Kimchi fried rice is a popular Korean dish that incorporates a variety of ingredients, usually vegetables and meats, with kimchi and rice. “(One) restaurant we used to go to I would always just get (Kimchi fried rice). But then they stopped making it, so I had to find a recipe for it,” Valenzuela said.
Valenzuela also recounted the first time their family made soup dumplings. “Me and my sister would always get them whenever we went out for dinner and it was kind of one day when my sister decided to make them at home,” she said, “so it took a long time … but it was fun.” Valenzuela often goes to restaurants, including Nando’s in San Francisco.
Peter Mah, a math teacher at BHS, discussed a Chinese dish called tomato egg. “We just need tomatoes, eggs, probably some salt and some sugar. You kind of just scramble some eggs then you cut the tomato into slices. Then you fry that up and season with some solid sugar. Add some water to cook it down until it’s kind of saucy. You add the eggs back and mix them together,” Mah said.
Since this was an easy dish to make, Mah grew to enjoy it more in college even though as a kid, he didn’t like tomatoes.
BHS senior Lexi Perez recommends a dish called sinigang, which she described as a “sour soup.” The dish is a good meal to eat when you’re sick, according to Perez. “Basically, you just have a really big pot of water and you put vegetables and meat, some people like to put shrimp, pork or beef. I personally like pork,” she said, and “it will most commonly have tomatoes, onion, and radish.” Perez explained that it has taken her a while to grow to like the dish as she got older, and it has a “homey” taste to it.
Margaret Sandiego, a BHS senior talked about a Filipino dish called Mechado. “Mechado is a beef stew. It’s kind of just like beef, marinated with potatoes, carrots, and like tomato sauce. It’s one of my childhood favorites, (and it’s) very easy to make,” Sandiego said, “You can also eat it vegetarian. (You) typically eat it with rice.”
They also mentioned a variety of other Filipino dishes. Chicken Adobo is a dish that consists of chicken legs glazed in vinegar, soy sauce, and other seasonings. “We (also) have Filipino spaghetti which has hotdogs in it,” Sandiego said. Another dish described was palabok, which contains noodles accompanied by pork and shrimp sauce.
“Filipinos all have different recipes. So whoever you end up going to, many Filipino dishes taste very different. It can be more savory, more salty, (and) more sweet. I tend to do the more savory side of Filipino dishes,” Sandiego said.
Food is also most commonly shared at large family gatherings. In Filipino culture, eating with your hands is encouraged, according to Sandiego. “When I visit the Philippines, it’s just fun to eat with my cousins … and I guess family gatherings … (have) all the food is laid out on a big slab of banana leaf and you just take what you want with your hand,” Sandiego said.
Recipes tend to be passed down a lot through different generations. “I’m lucky that my mom was taught by my grandma,” Sandiego said, “I’ve learned how to cook a lot of Filipino dishes from my mom and my grandma.”